SUMMER SIPPING WITH A BRAZILIAN SPLASH

Mixologist and bar manager Ikaika Villa, right, of Doraku Sushi has a cooling cocktail ready for these hot summer days, using fresh local fruit, sugar, limes, soda water and Brazil's favorite liquor — cachaca.

"This cocktail is really refreshing, and easy to make," Villa explains. "For this particular drink, I chose to use passion fruit, but any local fruit you would like will work fine.

"The first step is to cut the fruit into three 1-inch cubes and put them into a cocktail shaker.

"Add one-quarter of a fresh lime, 1 ounce of cachaca, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

"Muddle the ingredients, add ice, a dash of soda water, shake and pour everything into a nice glass."

Villa says this cocktail can also be great for parties: "Cut your favorite fruit, like a watermelon, add a quarter cup of lime juice, and blend that together to make a puree. Add a full bottle of cachaca and put the mixture in a container (or your hollowed-out watermelon), and let that sit in your fridge overnight. Serve it over ice and soda water, and you'll have a great party in no time."

— Lacy Matsumoto

SALES & BARGAINS

• We're all well aware of the dangers of skin cancer (thank you, Izzie Stevens!), so we suggest you get proper protection from the sun. Most drugstores have decent sunblock lotions, but none match up to the stuff you'll find serious waterhounds sporting. And you don't need to be mistaken for a kabuki actor to get true water-resistant sun protection. Try one of our faves: Waterman's Applied Science, SPF 55 in micro white. It's really clear, and comes in a sport stick you can carry with you daily. If you're unexpectedly making an outdoor site visit, just smear it on over makeup. Find it for $18 at Hawaiian South Shore, 320 Ward Ave.; 597-9055.

• How can you beat the glam look of a sun hat? Its added bonus of sun protection makes it smart and chic for summer. With all the salty beach air, though, straw hats break down easily. Opt for a popular and durable cotton canvas medium-brim look by scala. It's offered in a rainbow of colors, so there's one just right for your mood. And after a long day out and about, just throw it in the wash to get it looking new again. Scala hats are stocked at a number of locations, but we found the best price at Kaiser Permanente's gift shop, at just under 20 bucks. It's chic, durable, and totally affordable. No reason you should get burned!

• If you've poked around the malls recently, you've probably noticed the June sales are now in full swing. Not all sales are created equal, so watch out. Now at Pipe Dreams, find all Paul Frank and O'Neil merchandise slashed 40 percent off! Bikinis, tanks, board shorts, cheeky sleeper sets, slippers, it's all on sale. Hurry, sales this good don't last long. Get your sporty and definitely girly look out on the sand and in the surf. Pipe Dreams, Aloha Tower Marketplace; 550-0275.

— Pualana Lemelle

VAMPING BACK FOR MORE WITH 'TRUE BLOOD' TONIGHT

HBO's vampire show "True Blood" returns at 6 and 8 tonight for a second season of gore and guts ... and sex and nudity. The action may take place in the South, but the show itself is truly set in an adults-only place called Premium Cable.

Creator Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under") continues his highly elaborate and extended adaptations of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, about a telepathic waitress (Anna Paquin is the wide-eyed Sookie), her undead beau Bill (Stephen Moyer), and various libidinous friends and monsters in the Louisiana swamp town of Bon Temps.

The special conceit here, a good one, is that synthetic blood — marketed as a kind of nonalcoholic beer for the blood-addicted — has allowed vampires to "come out of the coffin" and join mainstream society.

The fleshed-out secondary characters have better material than do Sookie and her vampire Bill, who labor under the burden of replaying for the umpteenth time the forbidden love between the living and the dead.

But it's a good sign that scary senior vampire Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) first appears this season in the middle of having his hair cellophaned. And it's also a welcome bit of irony that Bill himself says at one point, "I'm a vampire, I'm supposed to be tortured."

— Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

TOPPED OFF, LOCAL STYLE

Aloha wear has become a part of our fashion sense, but — let's face it — it has an old-fashioned rep. Street culture shop Leilow has updated the vibe with a hat made out of aloha-shirt fabric, so today's generation can rock it.

The hats, made with vintage aloha print cottons and silks, range from $30 to $58. Available at Leilow Hawaii, 1532 Makaloa St.; 943-9111, www.leilow.com.

— L.M.

TEXAS TWANGS AND BRIMFUL BRITS

Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses, "Roadhouse Sun"

All hail roots music! And if you love it, you'll want to know that young Texan Ryan Bingham has unleashed the best Americana album of the year so far. Bingham has the serious songwriting chops of his Lone Star forebears like Joe Ely, Guy Clark and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and mixes 'em with some of the finest whiskey-soaked, shredded honkytonk vocals to emerge in this decade. The album sounds as though it was born in a rough roadhouse, and that rawness combined with finely honed musicianship makes the record a nonstop stomper.

Eels, "Hombre Lobo"

E (Mark Oliver Everett) and the Eels return with their first new music in four years, and have made this one a concept record about desire in all its extremes, flying straight in the face of the singles-dominant playlist culture of the iPod generation. E boils his intentions, saying the songs are about "that dreadful, intense want that gets you into all sorts of situations that can change your life in big ways."

New Cornershop Video

Remember the insanely catchy "Brimful of Asha" from Cornershop in the late '90s? The British band's blend of UK pop with traditional Indian sounds was unique and infectious. The group is back, with a new single, "The Roll Off Characteristics (Of History In The Making)," released May 26 on its own label; see the video at http://tinyurl.com/msfbck.

— Sarah Zupko, PopMatters.com

WHAT'S ON YOUR IPOD?

Josh 86, www.myspace.com/the86list

1. "Riding For a Fall," Delroy Wilson

2. "Love Flame," Chris Murray Combo

3. "State of Mind," Mad Caddies

4. "Float," Flogging Molly

5. "Last One to Die," Vex